Strange Smokeless Powder Rounds at Santiago

They were outgunned by Spanish and their wondrous smokeless powder .45-caliber rifles. Could this rag-tag team of American Cavalry men survive–and win?

Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders at the Battle of San Juan Hill, a turning point in the Spanish-American War, as well as firearms innovation.

“The Mauser bullets drove in sheets through the trees and the tall jungle grass, making a peculiar whirring or rustling sound; some of the bullets seemed to pop in the air, so that we thought they were explosive; and, indeed, many of those which were coated with brass did explode, in the sense that the brass coat was ripped off, making a thin plate of hard metal with a jagged edge, which inflicted a ghastly wound. These bullets were shot from a .45-caliber rifle, carrying smokeless powder … .”—Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders, in the chapter “The Cavalry at Santiago.”

About Jennifer L.S. Pearsall

Jennifer L.S. Pearsall joined Gun Digest in summer 2011 as a books editor. She began her career selling guns in a retail gun shop and handgun range in Northern Virginia in the early 1990s. Recruited by the NRA to join its editorial staff in 1999, she then went on to succeed as a freelance writer and photographer. She's been a competitive shooter in many disciplines, including sporting clays, IPSC, and metallic blackpowder cartridge silhouette, and she has been an avid hunter for many years.